Points of View
A Star Ocean 3 fanfic
by Intrasonic
Setting: Leaving the Shrine of Kaddan
It was with some sense of relief that the decor and daylight of the Aquaria Chapel finally came into view at the end of the tunnel. The threat was over, but that didn't serve to the make the gloomy tunnels and corridors any more cheerful.
While Nel was perhaps the only person in the group unaffected by the atmosphere, this was mostly due her being too distracted to bother noticing it. Were she confronted on the issue, she would have felt herself quite justified in her present state of mind.
Somehow, the flying ship and the subsequent massacre of both her and Airyglyph's soldiers was actually being regulated to a background issue. As was the spectacular duel between the giant ships, coupled with Maria appearing out of thin air...
There were other worlds.
Other worlds. Not just other continents or countries, but other worlds. There were other worlds that weren't here. And if they weren't here, they had to be out there.
It was a bizarre thought, one that Nel couldn't even have begun to flesh out the details of, particularly where 'Out There' was. Common sense dictated that everything was from Here, 'Here' being the world. It was a big 'Here', but it was still 'Here'. Nevertheless, there was too much evidence that dictated otherwise.
The outsiders weren't from 'Here'. Fayt wasn't, Cliff wasn't, Mirage wasn't, Maria wasn't, and the Vendeeni weren't. They were from somewhere else. Somewhere else where giant ships with (previously) unheard of destructive potential flew around and fought on a regular basis. Somewhere else where people could be made to appear out of thin air at will. Somewhere else where swords and arrows were long obsolete, in favour of self-contained, energy-firing, weaponry that (with all due respect to Maria) even a child could manage to operate.
Nel wasn't sure where 'Out There' was. Contrary to ancient beliefs and casual intuition, the world was presently known, beyond a doubt, to be spherical. Thus, no matter how far away you travelled, you would eventually wind up back where you started. Heading downwards also produced a similar result, with various theories about what the scenery was like in-between. Therefore... it stood to reason that wherever the outsiders were from, it must be from somewhere above. Hence, the giant flying objects that had recently graced their kingdom. But above, there was nothing but sky, right? How you could have another world up in the sky?
Clearly, despite all logic, it was possible. In fact, when Nel began to really think about the various conversations that she'd had recently, it was extremely possible. In fact, it seemed that there were so many other worlds 'Out There' that there were laws specifically dedicated to dealing with other worlds. Furthermore, there were different organizations among these worlds, and they didn't always agree with each other.
When you looked at it that way, Nel admitted, it seemed a great deal like her own world, except on a larger scale. A much larger scale. And that in turn, was leading to another conclusion.
Clearly, as much as it galled her to realize it, the events of the last few weeks had been nothing but a roll of some supernatural dice. Fayt, Cliff, and Mirage had arrived here by nothing more than an accident, pursued by the Vendeeni. And it had been nothing more than fluke that the Vendeeni had been able to detect (another fascinating ability these outsiders seemed to possess) the Sacred Orb (which, in the greater scheme of things, was simply an object falling into a category called "OPA's"). And people being people, regardless of what they looked like, they had immediately decided to possess the powerful object.
It was, Nel admitted, rather humbling to learn that your entire world had been turned on end simply because of a little bad luck.
end